SMI Announces Automated Analysis for Mobile Eye Tracking

BERLIN, Germany, October 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

SMI has developed an automated analysis solution for mobile eye tracking data based on advanced computer vision algorithms. This solution will first be shown at market research conference Research&Results in Munich, Germany, October 28-29, 2015. SMI's Automated Semantic Gaze Mapping technology (ASGM) automatically maps data from mobile eye tracking videos created with SMI's Eye Tracking Glasses , so that they can be quantitatively analyzed with SMI's analysis Software Suite BeGaze.

In many cases the manual coding necessary for the quantitative analysis of mobile eye tracking data is a barrier to fast and efficient study analysis and broader use, especially when it comes to larger scale studies. After several years of intensive research and development and testing with thousands of participants and study hours, SMI's ASGM (Automatic Semantic Gaze Mapping) Technology is ready to drastically improve this situation paving the way for broader and more cost-effective use of mobile eye tracking.

In design, human factors, training and other studies in professional and academic environments the needs on speed, quality and cost-effectiveness are rising and at the same time studies grow larger to cover quantitative samplers over several geographies. Shopper insight studies, for example, easily create tens to hundreds hours of video and take an enormous effort, many people and significant throughput time to be analyzed - typically three to ten times the recorded video time. More and more, however, FMCGs want data on package and shelf design or shopper behavior fast - in "real time" - with regards to their own design and decision making processes. SMI's ASGM reduces processing times by a factor of ten or more allowing for a processing time of below one day, irrespective of the study size and at the same time can increase the quality over human coding.

SMI's market leading solution for semi-automatic mapping already provided significant progress over other methods and works in almost all use cases, but for large data volumes it still requires a lot of effort. SMI has now benchmarked its ASGM algorithms with lead customers and studies with thousands of participants and has confirmed an outstanding level of accuracy and reliability for the mapping in target use cases while achieving breakthrough improvements in throughput time. In many cases better mapping than by human coders could be observed - especially on large data volumes that are boring, tiring or just difficult for humans to code.

SMI's solution will come to market as an extension to SMI's BeGaze analytical software platform and a powerful cloud service for high volume studies. Quantitative analysis can be done in BeGaze or after export in MS Excel, Matlab, R or other analytical software.

Eberhard Schmidt, SMI's CEO says: "After testing with a number of lead customers with high volume requirements and study settings in challenging international field conditions on several continents we have confirmed a high level of confidence and quality for our advanced computer vision solution. We are now getting ready for the product launch and roll-out. We are extraordinarily satisfied with the fact that the automated analysis with ASGM takes advantage of the excellent quality of the scene video and eye tracking data generated by SMI's Eye Tracking Glasses. The solid foundation we have with our algorithms in eye tracking allows high efficiency and quality in automated analysis."

About SMI 

SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) is a world leader in eye tracking technology, developing and marketing eye & gaze tracking solutions for scientists and professionals, OEM and medical solutions for a wide range of applications. Find out more at http://www.smivision.com. Follow @SMIeyetracking on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter.

Media Contacts
SensoMotoric Instruments GmbH (SMI)
Stefanie Gehrke
+49-(0)-172-3808-537
Stefanie.Gehrke@smi.de